The city’s values are reflected in the daily lives of its employees

This article has originally been published in the Espoo Magazine 4/2021. 

Read other articles in the Espoo Magazine 4/2021

Read the article about the City strategy: Something old, something new  

Espoo’s values state that the city is “resident- and customer-oriented” and “a responsible pioneer” that focuses on “fairness”. We asked some city employees how Espoo’s values are reflected in their daily work. 

“Our entire business concept is based on customer service. My work focuses on developing customer service for foreign-language speakers, and we’ve also received funding for this from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The idea is to make services easier and faster to use by consolidating our guidance and counselling in one place. From the customer’s perspective, our key services are now available on a one-stop-shop principle.  

We play a major role in integrating foreign-language speakers into Finnish life, and social sustainability has become a part of our daily work. For example, we aim to converse with our foreign-language customers in Finnish as far as possible in order to improve their language skills. 

Our service point is in an easily accessible location at the Iso Omena Service Centre. There are good transport connections, and it’s easy to stop by while doing other errands.” 

“We take care of our customers in their own homes. Our activities revolve around ensuring that our customers’ daily lives run smoothly, with active participation from them. Above all, participation means that our customers are involved in planning and deciding on their own care. 

However, we still don’t know what goes on in homes on a daily basis. That’s why we actively collect customer feedback using our own customer satisfaction surveys and encourage our customers to give continuous feedback. 

Technological solutions have also become part of everyday life in home care. However, the most important prerequisite for development is having skilled personnel, which is why we’ve made considerable investments in training this year. 

Although services are provided to all customers on an equal basis, everything revolves around people as individuals, which is why we chart everyone’s personal needs.  

We employ strict self-monitoring to ensure that both our customers and personnel are treated fairly.” 

“Residents always have the best knowledge of their neighbourhood. That’s why we want to hear from them at all stages of city planning, and particularly during the early stages. At every residents’ event, local people will raise new ideas and thoughts that will impact planning. However, as city planning always involves reconciling the interests of numerous parties, people can sometimes feel that their wishes are not being heard. Every opinion and observation is treated with equal respect and consideration, whether it’s put forward by a resident, company or another party.  

Planning solutions are always considered with an eye to the longer term – at least 50 years in the future. Before any solutions are reached, a great many studies and reports will be carried out to, for example, forecast the need for future transport and housing in the area. We want to implement sustainable solutions in which nature, the climate and ecological values are strongly weighted. Urban planning solutions do, after all, affect the daily lives of local residents.”